Remodeling Questions

Robin M. has great advice! We used Kilz waterproofing or something to seal the weeping walls, but it wasn't enough. We had to dig a trench around the house with drain pipe. That worked.

Has your basement ever had one drop of water in it? Is the hot water heater located in the basement? Do you have a sump pump? do you see where I'm going with this? Water damage is crushing- Be sure if you have a sump pump that you have the insurance coverage for it-learned that the hard way. Carpeting is cozy-get one that resists stains-cleans well and will stand up to the wear and tear. Rug burns are bad-but better than hitting the hardwood. My sister has the huge porcelin country sink in her laundry room and it is sensational-it's like this only plain:
http://www.us.kohler.com/onlinecatalog/detail.jsp?from=th...
Good luck-sounds nice!

go with stainless steel sink you will not regret it, love mine. I dont know if I would go real wood in a basement but laminate would be okay you have to be careful because there is always a chance of water in a basement. we have travertine stone in our basement with rugs the clean up is easy.

I have a stainless steel sink, I love it! Easy to clean, no need to worry about hubby or daughter dumping a drink there and forgetting to rinse, everything has come off cleanly even if I did not rinse it for over 12 hours. Personal I like stainless steel over quartz (hubby says metal is always better, hard to break). My mom has quartz and it is stained (from previous owners) then once or twice my brother forgot to rinse after dumping code red mountian dew in the sink, yup stained it. After months of washing it has faded so you can not even tell unless you know where to look. In the end it comes down to personal likes.

We just redid our basement, not because we wanted to but because after a ton of rainfalls, many flooding issues for most of the area, a few years back it totally ruined our basment walls and rooms.

First before remodeling your basement that it is water free, and if you have ever had water in it or see signs of water damage (mold, water stains, lime dust, dampness and so on) that you get a WHOLE basement waterproofing system done otherwise whatever you are doing to it now will be ruined by the smallest trace of water. Trust me, we put about $3000 into one small part of the basement and a year later hard rains, flooding, backing up, poor drain tiles (later found out completely clugged up), bad sump pump AND the WHOLE basement got damaged by water. We then spent an arm and a leg waterproofing just to get back to dryness.

So if you have always had a dry basment, a good sump pump then go ahead and do some remodeling. Sealing the whole floor with basement paint. We are putting carpet squares in the play/living room in the basement, the laundry room and storage areas will be concert floors or rugs where we stand walk the most. Carpet in a basement is possible and will warm up the room and keep those feet away from the cold, cold, cement floor. The guys that waterproofed our basement said to never put wood floors in the basement, they hide any mosture trouble and do not let air flow through to the cement floor as easily (which is needed to help keep things balanced).

I don't know anything about quartz sinks. I have stainless steel and the only beef I have with it is that ours is pretty shallow. Whichever sink you choose, make sure you get a deep one!

In the basement, I would go with carpet! I grew up with a 1/2 finished rec. room basement and my parents put in berber carpet and never had to replace it. You can easily sweep up any food spills. There were 3 of us, me and 2 older brothers. It was nice when we had sleepover parties and people could sleep on the floor in a sleeping bags!

I love stainless steel sinks. The company that we got our granite from sold C-Tech-I sinks. We love the sink & it came with grids, stainless collander, & the draining plugs. It's been 5 years & it's upheld 6 people & still looks awesome & no scratches. If you have a nice high end faucet, I think it looks classy.

As for the basement we went with a wood looking laminate flooring, it is beautiful & extremely durable. This stuff is 100% water proof & scratch proof. We had an appraisal done recently & he thought it was real hard wood, along with everyone else that sees it. We have a large area rug in the t.v. area for the added warmth. My 3, 5, & 6 yr old have been rollerskating in the basement all winter & playing hockey & you cannot tell.

Bamboo flooring is pretty water proof but it scratches & dents very easily. We have it throughout our 1st floor & it is beautiful but I am very strict about what goes on the floor.

I love wood for the looks. But for living areas (that really get lived in) I like carpet for the coziness. I'm a floor person and love to get down on the floor whenever i can. I live on all tile and area rugs. What I wouldn't do for a fully carpeted family room. Not sure that it matters, but I'm an interior designer. Form follows function: that means, make function the priority and the esthetics's follow.

I have the biggest deepest stainless steel sink they make and I LOVE it. I used to have porcelain, but it got chipped.

Basement - I put tile in my old basement because I knew that we'd eventually get water down there. The tile was perfect. We never got water until they put a new housing development behind us and that changed the water table. If it got wet, I'd wet vac it out, wash it up, and it looked great. Never had to worry. I would have preferred wood, but tile was a much better option. I put down cheap area rugs and if they got ruined - which happened exactly once - I threw them out.

If you are sure your basement is dry, then I'd do the wood laminate with rugs over them.
YMMV
LBC

Can you research bamboo flooring? I llike it when I see it on the diy channel. Technically you could always have heated floors, but they are probably expensive. They do have a new carpet out that is supposed to be unstainable.

We just did a complete kitchen and master bath remodel and I am decorator challenged too! We went with a porcelain undivided apron sink and it is our favorite part of the kitchen. It was expensive, but man I love that sink. It is great for washing, up prepping and other things, like dumping buckets. We do have a mat in the sink to prevent scratches, but that is not a big deal. I am able to easily get stains out my using a soft gel cleanser with bleach. Good luck on all your choices.